Vigeon Post

EPIPHANY THREE 2001: ALL SAINTS BROMSGROVE
My Vicar when I was a lad must have been a remarkably good and holy man - though one did not think in those terms at the time for he was one of those old fashioned characters who used to  thrive in small towns where people can still be individuals. But I know now he was good and he was holy because I remember an evensong in 1955 at St. Cuthbert's Carlisle on 26th September at which I preached and Bob. another young clergyman, sang the service. The point being that that same morning, he had been ordained Deacon and I a Priest and that we both were members of Harold's flock. I reckon that's quite an achievement for any Priest. There is always something special about officiating in the Church where one has been brought up. They know you probably too well - they remember you making eyes at the girls during the creed - they remember you arriving hot foot only just in time at 7.59 to serve at the eight o'clock mass - they remember you playing Hyde Park Corner at the Youth Club Christmas Party - they have no illusions about you.
So it was that Jesus, so S Luke tells us, came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and went as was his custom to the synagogue on the Sabbath day.  By now, no doubt, he was already marked in church circles as a likely lad, had acquired something of a name since he was baptized by his cousin John and gone off on a prolonged retreat in the stark mountains of Judea.  So he comes home, and as is the custom in a synagogue, he was asked as a special guest to read the scripture for the day. We need to remember that the Jews in those days as we do today had a specific lectionary or list of readings which were appropriate on certain days. So that day the reading was from Isaiah chapter 61.
Jesus takes the scroll , reads it and with it sets out the agenda for his mission. He takes the honoured centuries old words and selects those as representing above all how he sees the charge laid on him by his  heavenly Father. It is a fascinating choice - and if today's reading had been allowed to progress to its real ending, you would hear how what Jesus pronounced caused consternation and indignation and several other kinds of "ations", and it concludes with the congregation hustling him out of the synagogue and turning into a lynch mob.
It is worth then  looking again at the words which were the appointed lesson for that day. They are beautiful words, they sound very good in English - and as so often we are lulled by the beauty into missing the cutting edge, the sharpness of the message. I  keep on returning to the wise saying of the novelist Dorothy L Sayers [of Lord Peter Wimsey fame] who said once;
"the beauty of the Bible lies in its truth not in its language".
So here goes.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind; to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour"
It is to Isaiah that we owe this concept of good news - what we call the GOSPEL. The word is a corruption of old Anglo Saxon meaning God's Good Spell or God's Good Message.
Indeed scholars talk about the Gospel in the Old Testament - by which they mean a selection of Old Testament literature [ above all the Psalms and Isaiah] which seem to anticipate the ministry and message of Jesus of Nazareth.
Why do I say this is a remarkable choice that Jesus makes when he says "Today this scripture reading has been fulfilled in your hearing, or more simply "Today it has come true.".  Simply because this is not what religious people tend to expect.  What impression does so much of Christian preaching so often leave in the minds of those who may come in contact with it ? I like the old chestnut of the husband who claimed to be going to church but in fact ended up in the working men's club; and his wife got suspicious at this unusual godliness. So she tested him one day. "What did the Vicar preach about this morning" and with a gallant stab at the likely options he replied "he preached about sin". And what did he say about sin ?: "He were agin it"
There is nothing more terrible than morality without love; nothing more unChristlike than ethics without tenderness to human weakness. We would then tend to think that if Jesus came with a commission from God to the world it would be a message of condemnation, it would tell humanity what a shower it was;  it would threaten the world with a fate worse than death if it did not come into line. I have to admit that there are terrifying words put in the mouth of Jesus in the Gospels. But if you actually look at what Jesus condemned it is quite fascinating.  He says of those who abuse children that it were better for them to be tied to a rock and dumped in the sea. He could not abide the corruption of innocence. That we can probably live with. The other two categories which he condemns are rather more subtle. He condemns those religious people [like Pharisees] who think they know what is right better than God Himself. And he condemns those who deliberately twist values upside down - who like Satan as portrayed by the poet Milton - say Good be thou my evil; Evil be thou my good. He cannot abide those who in the face of  human goodness cannot accept it because the person concerned does not wear the right label.
But these things are not the main thrust of what we might call The manifesto of Jesus. Its all about setting the human race free.  I have a paper back on my shelves by an eminent German professor of theology, in which he asks the question - "Was Jesus a liberal ?" He was not of course talking party politics. Though I did enjoy the quip that was going about some twenty years ago to the effect that the Church of England is no longer the Tory party at prayer but the Liberal Democrats at Family Communion.But the word liberal is in many quarters including some Christian ones a dirty word, a selling of the past against traditional values. The professor came to the conclusion that Jesus was a liberal in the sense that his ministry was devoted to setting people free.  Not apparently just freedom from sin - which is the one we usually latch onto - the religious setting free of the soul from the bonds that shackle you and me and prevent us from living and acting creatively and joyously and powerfully. It is that of course. But Jesus mentions good news for the poor - and in his day the poor consisted of the majority of the population who had no rights, no money and often no jobs.
 I remember myself and my brother in law back in the sixties talking to Sally's Father after dinner in the impressive dining hall of Rose Castle the residence of the Bishop of Carlisle. An election was looming. My father in law was in any case brought up on a small Irish farm where he did not wear shoes until he started school. We tried to corner him. How should a Christian vote in the forthcoming election. And he replied something like this. As a Christian I should remember those in society who are jobless, poor and deprived and ask myself which party would do most to remedy their condition and then vote accordingly even if it conflicted with my own interests.  That's a thought to wrestle with.
    Isaiah's words are essentially about liberation. That is a word which goes relevantly right across the whole gamut of human experience. A few years ago, I was singing  in Verdi's Requiem. And it bore in on me how the words "libera me" keep on turning up in the script of the Requiem Mass.  Yes , it refers in the first place to the plea of those who fear judgment and condemnation and who cry out  "Forgive me - Liberate me - set me free". But in the end  this phrase is right at the heart of the Christian faith. Jesus appropriates these words which promise that he will set the captives free. And if you peer down into your innermost soul you will, I believe, find that this is the cry of humanity faced by its universal predicament. The predicament caused by our  failure and impotence and  weakness and what we can only call our bloody mindedness.
    That was the call of Jesus - to remedy the human race - to remould us - to remove the flaws in our makeup - to heal the aching of our hearts and to release the joy in us that is bursting to come out and yet is inhibited by  our sense of frustration and rebellion.
Set us free Lord - that is the universal prayer of those who recognise Jesus as our Saviour. And every Eucharist we are potently reminded that the price of the liberation he came to offer us was paid for in the agony of the cross.
O Saviour of the World who by your cross and passion has redeemed us - save us and help us we humbly beseech you O Lord.  LORD SET US FREE !